Harnessing fusion power would revolutionize energy, allowing us to generate clean power
US scientists have reportedly carried out the first nuclear fusion experiment to achieve a net energy gain, touted as a ''major breakthrough'', according to Financial Times.
How the experiment marks a breakthrough in the quest for clean power
- According to scientists, nuclear fusion is considered to be a potential energy of the future, because it produces little waste and no greenhouse gases. The technology offers a potential alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy, according to Financial Times.
- According to a report by CNET, harnessing fusion power would revolutionize energy, allowing us to generate clean power without pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The net gain reaction, which is considered to be a “holy grail” of zero-carbon power, is a major step towards being able to create a technology one day that could offer a clean and virtually limitless supply of energy.
- Although many scientists believe that fusion power plants are still a distant dream, the technology's potential is indisputable. Fusion reactions produce no long-lived radioactive waste and can theoretically power a house for hundreds of years with only a small cup of hydrogen fuel, Financial Times reported.
- “Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy out than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal,” Arthur Turrell, deputy director of the UK Office for National Statistics, wrote on Twitter. “This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion—at a time when we've never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more!”
- The US breakthrough comes at a time when the world is grappling with high energy prices and is in urgent need to shift away from the use of fossil fuels in order to keep average global temperatures from reaching dangerous levels.
